WindowManager

In the [:XWindowSystem:X Window System], the X Server itself does not give the user the capability of managing windows that have been opened. Instead, this job is delegated to a program called a window manager.

The window manager gives windows a border and allows you to move them around and maximize/minimize them. The user interface for these functions is left up to its author.

This proves to be quite confusing for the new user of a X windowing environment because most other environments simply use one window manager and give the user no choice. In this sense, X is much more versatile and allows more tailoring of the environment to whatever the user wants. It allows the creation of an ["xterminal"], a diskless workstation which runs only an X server (out of ROM) and leaves all user interface implementation to a central compute server.

Common Linux window managers are:

AmiWM (Amiga Lookalike)
Sawfish [http://sawmill.sourceforge.net/]
Windowmaker [http://www.windowmaker.org/]
Metacity [http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/metacity] (for DebianGnome ).
Blackbox [http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/]
Fluxbox [http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/]
JWM (A footprint efficient window manager)
Openbox [http://www.icculus.org/openbox/]
Enlightenment [http://www.enlightenment.org/]
XFCE [http://www.xfce.org/]
Kwm (The window manager used for the KDE desktop)
Twm (an old window manager dating back to the beginnings of X windows)
Fvwm [http://www.fvwm.org/] (an old but useful window manager - still in constant development!)

see x-window-manager packages descriptions

If you use startx rather than a login manager, you'll probably want to choose a default Window Manager. To change the default window manager use

  update-alternatives --config x-window-manager

( See update-alternatives manpage).

Window Managers must not be confused with ["Desktop environment"]s such as GNOME, KDE, XFce. These three environments use a window manager as a single part of a much larger system. And to make things much more complicated, GNOME doesn't force you to use any one window manager. They have a list of "supported" window managers that you can choose from.

Afterstep should be mentioned - (and fvwm is actually fvwm2 whereas fvwm1 already had/has lots of "functionality" and lives on a smaller foot-print)

See also